Ripped Apart Molecule by Molecule, or worse, Grounded
by bloombaby26
Summary: Danny's in trouble with his parents. One-shot with possible additions.


_Author's Note:_ Thank you to all who reviewed _Eyes_. They made me so happy! I've been reading Danny Phantom fics again and this came to me. I will probably leave it at this, but if inspiration strikes, I might add a chapter or two. Oh and feel free to offer critiques. I did not do any real editing. The title is a DP version of Hermione's famous quote :-)

* * *

He was totally grounded.

Not just in trouble, but never-going-to-see-the-light-of-day-on-the-weekend-again in trouble. Probably until graduation. Or even after. His parents would never forgive him for this. They would be livid for weeks, _months_ even. And the worst part was that there was nothing he could do to explain. Well, nothing short of telling the truth, but that was obviously impossible. So he would have to take any punishment they gave him, and not complain. Jazz would probably back his parents on this one- though, she _had_ warned him. And he had wanted to listen, but duty called, like always.

So here he was, about to sit through the worst parent-teacher conference of his life, and explain why he was going to have to repeat chemistry _and _English next year.

Oh man.

* * *

The loud ticking of the clock filled the warm, silent office. Danny felt sweat dripping slowly down the back of his neck as he looked down at his sneakers, waiting for the news to sink in and his parents to flip out. They had arrived ten minutes ago, not quite sure why the meeting had been called, but upon hearing what Principal Ishiyama had to say about the state of his grades, they had fallen into what Danny could only conclude to be a state of disappointment-induced shock. He was failing two of his five classes, and was barely scraping Cs in his other three. If one of those three grades dropped any lower in the two weeks before school let out for the summer, he would have to repeat the whole year.

"I- I don't understand, Danny," said his mother. She was wearing her usual blue jump suit. He lifted his eyes to her, "You said you got an 'A' on your chemistry test a few weeks ago. How did your grade drop so quickly?" He looked down at his sneakers again. The soles were starting to pull away from the rest of the shoe, and the ends of the laces were fraying. "Why didn't you tell us you were struggling? We could have helped you, or found you a tutor, or-"

"Mr. and Mrs. Fenton," Ishiyama interrupted, "Danny's grades have been lower than average since the second semester of his freshman year. This year he has been borderline failing since January. His teachers have told me he received several notices about his grades that he was supposed to deliver to you, however judging by your reaction to this news, I'm assuming that he did not." She spoke about him as if he wasn't even there! His fists clenched tighter by his sides. "Your son has a real issue with attendance and consistently turning in homework and completing assignments. The work that he does complete is satisfactory, B level or above, so that shows us that your son _does_ comprehend the material, he just doesn't put in the necessary effort." ...Ouch.

Danny glanced up again to see the inevitable damage. His mother stared at Ishiyama, confusion slowly giving way to disappointment, and his father, well, looked _sad_ more than anything else. Defeated, like the time when Danny was 10 and he had told his dad he thought that ghost-hunting was a dumb job and only losers believed in ghosts. That was the day after his elementary school's career day, and Danny had been teased mercilessly by nearly the whole class after his parents had done a presentation. Back then his dad had thought the world of him, and Danny was mean and embarrassed by him. Now, his dad still thought the world of him, and how did Danny pay his loving, if somewhat oblivious, parents back? By becoming probably the only son of two geniuses to fail high school. _He_ was the embarrassment for his parents! Not the other way around! Jazz, well, she was the perfect daughter, always passing with honors and doing a ridiculous amount of extracurricular activities. She'd attend some Ivy League school and probably win a Nobel Prize before she was thirty. Then there was him. Even without ghosts interrupting his studying or his sleeping or his eating or his- he had to face it. Even without ghosts he wasn't as smart as his sister or his parents. He never would have made the grades he needed to apply to the competitive programs to become an astronaut like he always dreamed. He wasn't constantly creating ingenious inventions like his dad, or developing new theories of how ectoplasm could be manipulated to understand the molecular make-up of ghosts, like his mom. He wasn't insightful like his sister, always analyzing his emotions and seeing through his lies. Hell, he wasn't even a techno-geek like Tucker, or a diehard activist like Sam. Without his ghost powers, he was… nothing. It was just like Mr. Lancer said; he was destined to work at Nasty Burger for the rest of his life. He failed his classes and he failed his teachers and he failed his parents.

He kept his eyes trained on his shoes.

* * *

_Well, there you go! Its depressing I know, but poor Danny is so easy to pick on! Let me know what you think. Thanks!_


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